Application distribution services which are used to download application programs (hereinafter, referred to as “applications”) on a free or non-free basis from a server apparatus (hereinafter, referred to as a “server”) connected to a network have become widespread, and can be utilized with a terminal apparatus (hereinafter, referred to as “terminal”) such as a portable terminal apparatus such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants (abbreviated as “PDA”), and a portable game consoles or stationary terminal apparatus such as set top boxes (abbreviated as “STB”), television receivers (hereinafter, referred to as “TV”), video recorders, and personal computers (hereinafter, referred to as “PC”).
An application is a program having functions of receiving a variety of information such as news information, weather information, traffic information, photographs, videos, and information provided through a blog service or a social network service (abbreviated as “SNS”) from a server via a network, controlling an input device of a terminal such as a touch panel, a keyboard, a joystick, or track ball or various sensors such as a global positioning system (abbreviated as “GPS”), an acceleration sensor, or a gyroscope, or controlling an output device of a terminal such as a display, a light emitting diode (abbreviated as “LED”), a speaker, or a vibrator. In the terminal apparatus, an application has a function of acquiring information inputted from a user through an input device or information detected by various sensors, outputting video or audio through an output device, or transmitting or receiving information to and from a server. An application is a program generated using program languages such as BASIC, C, Java (registered trademark), and JavaScript (registered trademark), multimedia contents such as Adobe Flash (registered trademark) and Adobe AIR (registered trademark), markup languages such as HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language), CSS (Cascading Style Sheet), and DOM (Document Object Model), web browser extensions such as AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript+XML) and Microsoft Silverlight (registered trademark), web server extensions such as PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor), and image description languages such as SVG (Scalable Vector Graphic).
In an application distribution service, generally, an application selected by a user is downloaded onto a terminal apparatus from a server for use. However, when the number of applications which can be distributed through the service increases, it takes time for a user to search for an application therefrom, or the search operation is complicated. Therefore, there is a need for a technique of automatically downloading and using an appropriate application depending on conditions of the terminal apparatus or the user. For example, automatically selecting an application depending on position information of a terminal, information on a content being viewed with the terminal, or information on a user using the terminal can be considered.
An application control system described in Patent Literature 1 is known as a first related art of controlling applications between a server and a terminal apparatus. In this application control system, the terminal apparatus transmits position information to a center apparatus corresponding to the server and the center apparatus notifies the terminal apparatus of the URL of an application correlated with the position information of the terminal apparatus. The terminal apparatus acquires an application and a service policy from the application server indicated by the notified URL of the application. The service policy includes operating conditions regulated at the position and time of the terminal apparatus. The terminal apparatus controls the application on the basis of the service policy. For example, when the position of the terminal apparatus departs from an application providing area, or when a time limit has elapsed, the terminal apparatus stops the operation of the application or discards the application. When another application is newly provided, the terminal apparatus switches the application currently operating to the newly-provided application.
A broadcasting receiver described in Patent Literature 2 is known as a second related art. The broadcasting receiver assigns channel numbers of the broadcasting receiver to applications and executes an application corresponding to the selected channel number when a channel number is selected.
A portable information apparatus managing service system described in Patent Literature 3 is known as a third related art. The portable information apparatus managing service system downloads an application to the portable information apparatus in accordance with an instruction of an issuer issuing the portable information apparatus. In accordance with an adding or deleting instruction from the issuer, the portable information apparatus managing service system adds an application to the portable information apparatus or deletes an application from the portable information apparatus. Examples of this application include a point application in which points are given to a user depending on the amount of money that a user spends in purchasing items or using services and a mileage application in which a mileage is given to a user depending on the distance or the amount of money by which transportation facilities, such as airplanes, are used.
In the first related art, the number of applications which can be simultaneously executed by a terminal apparatus is only one. Therefore, when plural applications which can be used in a certain place are present, a user has to use the applications while switching between them. Since an application and the service policy thereof are simultaneously distributed, the service policy cannot be changed after the application is distributed. That is, the operation of the application cannot be changed by the server after the application is distributed. For example, a control operation of executing an application for displaying an advertisement at a specific time cannot be performed in accordance with an instruction from the server.
In the second related art, an application can be controlled by only the broadcasting receiver but cannot be controlled by a server apparatus or the like. In the third related art, plural applications can be downloaded onto a portable information apparatus but execution of the downloaded application cannot be controlled.